Solo The Darth Maul Cameo

If we assume that it needed to be done (to get that argument out of the way), I thought it was perfectly executed. Not too much. Just right. There was potential to get carried away and have him flipping around in his own Darth Vader hallway scene, but they showed restraint, and still managed to have him provide figurative punch to the scene. I thought his appearance was tense and intimidating, as intended.

 

Apparently the original voice actor for Maul peter serafinowicz was brought in to do a voice over for Maul for Solo. But to his surprise he was cut out and replaced by Sam Witwer and he didnt actually find out until after the premier (which he wasn't invited to). They thought it would fit better with canon to use Sam instead.



That solves a mystery i always did wonder about.

 

Bad choice, IMO. Serafinowicz is a much better Maul voice. Both more subtle and more menacing. Witwer hams it up way too much.

 

Funny thing was that Witwer said while Park lip-syched to Witwer's voice over, then Park also did a take using his own voice, and then Witwer returned to record over partially using Park's version and acting performance. So the end result is a collaboration of both. No mention of Peter ever recording officially.

https://www.slashfilm.com/sam-witwer-interview-darth-maul/

https://io9.gizmodo.com/sam-witwer-on-the-enduring-legacy-of-darth-maul-from-t-1829096359

Seemed like a collaborative effort and one very respective for Ray Park and his character which seemed like the more legit one than compared to the toons. I think, probably Filoni helped Sam get the job for SOLO . IF Peter is telling the truth, I don't know about Peter, since he bad mouthed the character and SW/Lucas for years and years and he claimed he was not invited to the premiere of the TPM either, so he could be BSing. If not, its kinda messed up I guess .

But Witwer was basically forced to do a deeper voice to fit Ray's performance, so he had to hold back on the ham unlike the crap he pulled on TCW and Rebels especially.

 

I find it hard to believe Peter would lie about this. its possible they brought both of them in to do it and then decided later who to pick and bring back.

It was only a couple of lines after all.

 

Of course he’s not lying.

 

I agree he is more subtle and menacing. But it's not exactly like Maul. Lucas told him to be ''just make him sound evil'' , with Serafinowicz I don't hear any anger, or any hate in Maul's voice, his voice was someone like Zemo's or Loki's from Marvel Universe (or Dooku (an evil politician) if I need to use a character from SW only), a smart and a silent bad guy with a lot of tricks. Maul also has that tricky character, but more importantly his sound is ''evil'', he needs to be full of hate and anger first.

Witwer makes him sound like full of hate and anger.

And let's not forget Witwer was the voice actor in the entire Clone Wars series and the Rebels (10 episodes full of Maul at least) and I think he deserved to be that voice. And since he knew Maul's revival story perfectly well, as far as I know he actually warned the visual director about Maul's lightsaber in the movie, since he also knew that Maul's first lightsaber was destroyed, he told them that they can't use that saber anymore, so they had two choices ; Darksaber and the broken Inquisitor lightsaber from Rebels (we also need an additional story on how Maul actually stole that saber from an Inquisitor, perhaps in a comic or book), so they chose the latter due to its being more similar to the Maul's first double-bladed saber. Serafinowicz probably didn't even know that detail, and I wouldn't blame him for that since he didn't work in Clone Wars and Rebels.

I would still be ok with Serafinowicz's voice, and I think he is a very good voice actor. But Witwer was a wise choice.

 

Yeah, like I said, Witwer does a more OTT Maul. I don’t think he needs to sound like he’s literally bursting with hate and anger with every sentence. For example, his “we’re going to be working a lot more closely together” to Q’ira need not have been dripping with nearly cackling evil.

 

Eh, I think he needed to do that. Maul is angry, and he heard that Dryden and his men died and they lost the coaxium, and he is suspicious of Q'ira, since it's really hard to believe that ''Beckett killed them all by himself'' lie. Maul is making her understand that she is in big trouble if that's not true.

 

That's fine. This is subjective. I just prefer a more subtle performance to balance out the rather unsubtle look.

Both his look and performance being OTT comes across like a Halloween funhouse character. That's why I like the more understated voice in TPM.

 

Dryden was volatile and emotional while Maul was the exact opposite , he was calm and collected and the novel makes mention of the difference between Dryden and Maul's tone and delivery and personality. Maul in SOLO is more like the Maul in TPM cause of Ray and they took the character more seriously, otherwise Witwer's voice would not matched Ray's performance and screen presence.

 

That's exactly the same feeling I had about the emperor in ROTJ when I first saw it. I much preferred the understated menacing tone of the original emperor in ESB. I found it hard to take the cackling old guy in ROTJ seriously.
But I think that was more jarring because ROTJ was right after ESB, so it made less sense for such a change. With Maul, first of all, I don't notice that much difference, and for whatever difference there is, I just tell myself that he's been through quite a bit since TPM, so it sort of makes sense that his voice/personality would change somewhat.

 

The second one is more like Maul imo.

 

I don't care for the strange accent Witwer puts at the end of each word and I liked the contrast of the low, soft tone from Serafinowicz combined with the visual aesthetic of Maul's appearance.

 

It's palpatinish.

 

I don't hear it in Palpatine as strongly as I do Witwer.

 

Peter was great as Maul's voice for TPM and audio Poem. Stanton took over for Peter in Battlefront II, but they went a different route by TCW.


Maul sounded too much like a English thug mobster from a Guy Ritchie movie or something in TPM, that was probably as evil as he could do without sounding strange and it ended up pretty great back in 1999 but with all the accents found in TCW to the later movies I don't think his voice sounded distinguishable enough for Maul. Especially as Witwer was more associated with the character's voice since 2011/12 and you just had British accented evil character Snoke in TLJ. People may of been confused or felt not enough distinction between Sidious, Maul and Snoke and then Dryden Vos added as another English accented villain in the SOLO movie.

Witwer's voice for Maul in SOLO was at its most evolved state, as he had all the effects of his best Maul moments in TCW and fit Maul character today as once again played by Ray Park.

All of which came out better than Witwer's usual TCW/Rebels imo since he often sounded not very distinguishable enough from The Son or Galen Starkiller characters that were all canon back then - while his Maul sometimes tried to imitate that London-like accented version that Peter's Maul had which was done on purpose out of respect.

Some of Witwer's voice of Maul was based on Peter's work, so it probably has its own rather unique voice now as he created his own thing for TCW and later added different voice for Maul when he was deceiving Ezra and talked to the Jedi. Maul and Sidious were expert actors since they dealt in subterfuge and espionage as part of their Sith deception training and ways.


So I think Witwer's voice work in SOLO is superior to the voice work of Peter's in TPM - as he doesn't sound like a middle class London thug but more like a Star Wars evil emperor figure with more of a Mafia Godfather type boss spin which Lucas seemed to want, Maul was a Sonny Corleone in his mind. Which was probably more the effect they wanted at this time in Maul's life. And Witwer very much improved upon Stanton's old Peter style Darth Maul impersonation in the older Battlefront II game by adding the homage, it but going beyond that by adding the very horrific yet very passionate fury along comprising it with the sinister Dun Möch of the Darth Maul we've seen since TCW series.


I think by the time of SOLO the voice job belonged to Witwer in fairness since he's more identifiable with the voice of the character and also very knowledgeable and respectful of the character and even Star Wars in general, while Peter never was and even in that video clip he sounds like he's playing he victim again.

 

Lol. The first one IS the original Maul. The first time we hear his voice, actually. How can a different version from almost two decades later be “more like Maul?”

 

I'm sure Serafinowicz still got paid even if they didn't use his voice.

I forgot Maul only had 3 lines in The Phantom Menace. I thought I'd prefer the voice from The Phantom Menace, but hearing both those these back to back I definitely like Witwer's voice in Solo. What would people think if Witwer's voice was Special Editioned into Ep1?

All that said, there is plenty of character motivation for the voice change. After what Maul goes through being cut in half, he's like a different character when Savage finds him then the Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace.

I gotta say, good choice on keep with Witwer.

 

Witwer does a good impression of Serafinowicz's Maul. i think you would really need to listen to actually tell.

Still a shame they got Serafinowicz in for nothing though.

 

The original Maul is what Lucas described it. It doesn't belong to any voice actor. Lucasfilm already decided on Sam Witwer for the Clone Wars when George Lucas was in the charge of the whole franchise. Which means Witwer is a better choice for Maul's original voice.

It's saying like Clive Revill IS the original Emperor, not Ian McDiarmid.



Clearly, Ian is a better choice for the Emperor's voice.

 

Serafinowicz probably auditioned, if he got the job as he claimed and then they didnt use him, its very likely he got paid for both the audition and the work or whatever.

The important thing was that they did not recast or CGI replace the actual actor who is the Darth Maul character in both face and action, Ray Park. Thats what made him iconic. It seemed very important to them that they get things right, they even had to get the lightsaber correct which could've been the Darksaber and Inquisitor. Originally they were gonna use Maul's original lightsaber which would've be anachronistic. Probably more thought went into it the more they thought about it and all that kinda thing rather than anything nefarious.

I have a feeling that Maul will use both his Darksaber and doubebladed lighsaber next time we see him cinematically. Ray talked a lot about using different weapons in each hand like two doubebladed lightsabers. On Rebels Maul used both his walking cane and ex-Inquisitor lightsaber at once and on TCW Maul expertly used two lightsabers at once.

 

It’s not like that at all, as George Lucas didn’t decide to release a special edition of TPM where Serafinowicz’s voice was replaced with Witwer’s for Maul’s scenes, and made canon. So in the canon movie-verse up until Solo, the former’s voice was the original voice of Maul, and that hasn’t changed. Claiming that TPM Maul’s original voice is something Lucas described, and not what we saw in TPM, is ridiculous. TPM is canon. Not some description of Maul that Lucas gave in an interview, and a subjective interpretation of that description which leads some to believe Witwer was more appropriate. As far as canonicity, Serafinowicz’s voice for Maul is the original Maul voice. There’s no debate about that at all. It’s simply true. Witwer’s Maul is canon as well, but not until after TPM, in TCW, Rebels and Solo. Meaning, his voice is not more Maul than the original. It’s just the voice he has after TPM.

 

Why would Lucas release a special edition for TPM just because of a single line? That would be pointless and kind of stupid.

Lucas decided on Witwer for the Clone Wars, he could easily use Serafinowicz for it but he didn't. Because Witwer was simply better.

TPM is canon as well as the Clone Wars, Rebels and the Solo movie, as far as the canon goes, Witwer has much more influence on the character in comparison with that Serafinowicz's single line in the entire TPM movie. I mean cut out that single line and it wouldn't even make any difference in the movie because no one even remembers if Maul actually talked in TPM or not. Most people even say Maul doesn't talk. As far as the canonicity goes Witwer > Serafinowicz due to Witwer having much more influence on the canon storyline as a voice actor.

If Serafinowicz was a better Maul, they would simply use him in the Solo movie at least if not for the Animation, but no. They simply said Witwer's voice is a better Maul.